"Julian fingering Fanny's lip"*

1983 Bantam Books cover

by Yvonne Gilbert

 It's almost the end of the year, so here are most of the things I've read, watched and listened to since my last update back in September.  Unfortunately, I don't have much time to spend on this as I need all the time I can get to work on the end-of-year roundup - which I've barely begun - Eeeek! (The observant amongst you will notice that I copied this intro from last year's end-of-year update because it's still relevant.)

 

Read

Oh, gods, it's been a year and I'm still struggling through Little, Big by John Crowley.  And I haven't even re-read anything either!  We'd better quickly move on to the next category...

Watched

⸰ The Vast of Night (Prime Video) - I could not make out what the male lead was saying for much of this alien abduction film.  His accent and specific 50s dialogue combined to become almost impenetrable to me.

⸰ Star Trek: Lower Decks, S3 eps 7-10 (Prime Video) - Amazing! The finale was so exhilarating, but rather than post a video of that and ruin it for anyone who may want to watch it without spoilers, here is a clip from an earlier episode.

 

"Thanks again for the mimosas."

⸰ Bill (Prime Video) - My gods, Ben Willbond makes a sexy King Philip II of Spain.  Rawr!

⸰ Cosmos (Prime Video) - A surprisingly good British sci-fi film akin to Contact-with-Jodie-Foster but on a shoestring budget.  The overly dramatic music and Hollywood Blockbuster Hero Speech was totally out-of-place, though (but the clichéd, race-against-time car journey wasn't, surprisingly).

⸰ First Contact: An Alien Encounter (BBC iPlayer) - A rather tiresome drama documentary.

⸰ The Great British Bake Off, S13 (C4) - The best baker won, but for me, this series was made by cheerful, enthusiastic, and very sexy runner-up, Sandro.  Disappointingly, his shirt remained on throughout every show.  Fortunately, his social media accounts came to the rescue, as you can see on the right (cropped image from this post).

⸰ Life After the Navigator (Prime Video) - Documentary about now grown up child actor Joey Cramer, famous for Flight of the Navigator (amongst other films).  Rather moving.

⸰ We Are Not Alone (Dave via Sky) - Sci-Fi comedy from Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond (two of the creators of Bill and Ghosts, amongst other things).  Amusing, but not a patch on Ghosts. 

 And the best thing about it - Lucien Laviscount's bulging biceps almost bursting out of his ridiculously undersized suit - disappointingly wasn't in it for long.  Which was  probably for the best actually, as he was far too distracting...  (I couldn't be bothered to screencap, so here's a link to something else he was in)

⸰ The Goes Wrong Show S1 (BBC iPlayer) - I nearly died laughing watching 'Robert Grove' laughing maniacally as he tried to get out of the room in ep 4 "The Lodge"!!!

⸰ Peter Pan Goes Wrong (BBC iPlayer) - My black, pointed hat is off to the Mischief Theatre for getting everything to go wrong with such wit and gay abandon.  David Suchet is priceless as the narrator.

⸰ A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong (BBC iPlayer) - See above.  Except that instead of David Suchet, they roped in Dame Diana Rigg and Sir Derek Jacobi.

⸰ Ghosts Christmas Special: "It's Behind You" (BBC iPlayer) - Why is Ghosts not on all year round?  Why?!?

⸰ Detectorists S3 Special (BBC iPlayer) - Ahhhhhhhh....

⸰ Motherland: Last Christmas (BBC iPlayer) - I hope this isn't the last of Motherland

Rewatched

⸰ Ghosts S1-4 and "It's Behind You" (BBC iPlayer) - because of course I rewatched series 4 straight away.  And then all four series again.  Twice.

* Post title from 'The Hardest Word', ep 3 of S4

⸰ Ghostbusters: Answer The Call (Prime Video) - I only watched it for Chris Hemsworth.  Mmmmmm...

⸰ Aliens vs Predator (DVD) - If one switches one's brain off and embraces the cheesiness, it's not terrible.  And Raoul Bova and Colin Salmon are nice to look at.

⸰ Detectorists (BBC iPlayer) - Utterly charming, so of course it got a rewatch.

⸰ Watership Down (DVD) - Not quite as harrowing as I remember, but still... (I've had this DVD for years, since at least May 2008 - it was still in the cellophane wrapper!) 

⸰ The Lost Boys (DVD) - Mmmm... Jason Patric.  But Billy Wirth as dark-haired vampire Dwayne even more so!

⸰ Star Trek: Lower Decks S3 (Prime Video) - Yes, this got a rewatch pretty much straight away, too.   And then another one this last week.

⸰ The Goes Wrong Show S2 (BBC iPlayer) - In keeping with the loose theme of finding a fanciable male amongst the casts of the various films and shows listed here, Dave Hearn as 'Max Bennett' looks very much like my ex, George.  But it's Chris Leask as 'Trevor' who I find myself crushing on!

⸰ Now and Again (DVD)

⸰ Legend (Prime Video) - Delightful as always!  (Before little Tom Cruise became really annoying)

Unwatched

⸰ Strictly Come Dancing (BBC) - I got through half the launch show back in September, realised that Aljaž wasn't in it, stopped watching and never went back.  Without Aljaž, the fun, good bits are now outweighed by the many, many annoyances.

Heard

 Aside from One Direction's "Stole My Heart" and various crashing anthems from Editors, this past couple of months or so I have mostly been listening to:  

⸰ Girls Aloud "Untouchable" and "Love is Pain" (I used to sing along - badly - to "Love is Pain" in the car when SP was driving.  How he didn't drive into a tree to end it all, I don't know)

 

⸰ Magdalena Bay "All You Do"

⸰ Human League "Filling up with Heaven" (amongst others from their 1995 album, Octopus)

⸰ Foxes "Body Talk"

⸰ The final dedicated music post of the year wouldn't be complete without something from my favourite beardy miseryguts and his equally glum band: White Lies "What If We're Bad Together"

⸰ Okay, that was too miserable to end on, so here's something a little more upbeat (although it probably isn't): "Breakdown Days"

 

⸰ Actually, let's end with BabyAngel69's "Cruel Intentions" instead which was first brought to my attention by Jon (who else?!) last year.  Thank you, Jon x!

 And that's about it for another year of wwwWOW! - except for the Xmas specials of both Ghosts and Detectorists.  I've never been so excited for Xmas!!!

EDIT 29/12/2022: I have now watched the Xmas specials of both Ghosts and Detectorists, and have updated the list above accordingly.  Carry on.